3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – my take on the Sermon

Sunday, January 22, 2012

1. Jona was the Prophet who disobeyed God. His account is a narrative, compared to others.

2. It was the 2nd call that Joana responded to. Jona a Jew was sent into a Gentile city to proclaim the message of repentance. On the 1st call he rather went to Jopa to take a boat to Tashis (today’s Spain) so that God will not see him. We know the story of the storm. The sailors, who were idols worshipeers offloaded to save the ship, by then Jona was a sleep in the haul. So they woke Jona up & he confessed that he was the reason for the storm. Then these Sailors, Pagans, tried getting the ship to storm but to no avail. They prayed to God that He should not punish them with Jona’s sins & threw him into the sea & the was calm.

3. Jesus is the new Jona, but He was obedient. He also slept at the storm like Jona. But when He was woken up. Jona like Jesus too was tired, so was sleeping. Jona got tired from running, while Jesus was tired from doing God’s work.

4. Jona was thrown into the sea for calm, but Jesus the master of the storm & rebuked it to be clm.

5. Jona was kept in the belly for 3 days & threw him out & Jesus was in the tomb for 3 days.

6. So when the 2nd call came, with alacrity of a mountain goat, he obeyed. Human beings it is after trails that we see our God & become repentant & obedient.

7. Jona did not still believe that the people of Nineveh will listen, but the King & his people repentent, proclaimed a fast & wore sack cloth & God did not destroy the people.

8. Jona pitched his tent somewhere & expecting that God will destroy the people & was unhappy when the destruction did not happen. Any Prophet whose last word is doom is a false prophet.

9. Then Jona was in the sun, & God gave him a tree for shade, but next day when He came the tree was dead. He was sad & God asked him why he was sad & he said it was because the tree was dead. Then God said you did not make the tree but are sad because it died. How about me when I have created so many people of Nineveh & you want me to destroy them when they repent. Our God is a God of mercy.

10. How do we respond to God’s call – the Gospel we see the way the Apostles respond to God’s call.

11. God calls from our vocation to respond in that particular vocation, fishermen called to be fisher’s of men. The call is made at our place of work & they respond at once.

12. Paul tells us in the 2nd reading that our time is short & so we should respond AT ONCE. How are we responding to God’s call with our vocation in the Church. How is God benefiting from our vocation in His Church.

13. God help me go beyond the limit of my response & redeicate myself to your work & let me RESPOND AT ONCE.

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